Chiefs should have gotten another chance to boot Steelers into playoffs

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Chiefs should have gotten another chance to boot Steelers into playoffs

Chiefs should have gotten another chance to boot Steelers into playoffs

Posted by Mike Florio on December 30, 2013, 12:18 AM EST
Chiefs

At a time when plenty of Steelers fans are griping about the decision to wipe what would have been a game-clinching fumble return off the scoreboard in overtime of the contest between the Chiefs-Chargers, all Steelers fans should be complaining about the failure of the officials to miss a blatant foul as the Chiefs tried to win in regulation.

As kicker Ryan Succop lined up on the right hash mark to try a 41-yard field goal with eight seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, seven Chargers positioned themselves on the line of scrimmage to the left of the long snapper. But a new provision added this year by the NFL to Rule 9, Section 1, Article 3 states that “[n]o more than six Team B players may be on the line of scrimmage on either side of the snapper at the snap” when Team A lines up in a conventional field goal formation.

Per a league source with knowledge of the situation, the NFL believes a flag should have been thrown. The league office could acknowledge the error publicly as soon as Monday.

The seven Chargers lined up to the left of the Chiefs snapper in plain view of at least two members of referee Bill Leavy’s crew. If the officials had called a penalty for illegal formation, the Chiefs would have had another chance to make what would have been the game-winning kick.

Succop’s shot at immediate redemption would have come from 36 yards out, with four seconds on the clock. If good, the Chargers most likely would have had no time left for a Stanford-band attempt to win the game.

While it’s impossible to know whether Succop would have made his Mulligan, the point is that he should have had a second chance, due to the San Diego penalty that somehow wasn’t called. If Succop had converted, the Steelers would be celebrating one of the most unlikely playoff berths in franchise history, courtesy of Week 17 losses by the Ravens, Dolphins, and Chargers.

Instead, Steelers fans will spend the offseason wondering whether their team could have replicated what the Steelers accomplished in 2005, when Pittsburgh parlayed the No. 6 seed into the long-coveted One for the Thumb.

Yeah, they blew the call with the fumble return too. The Steelers got jobbed, but they put themselves in that position to be jobbed.

If you look at the picture Jooser posted; you can clearly count 7 players lined up on one side of the center. That is a new rule and is an illegal formation. Can't have more than 6. I mean, it's not as if TWO referees were directly behind the line up... oh...wait....

That game cost me like 10 years of my lifetime. What a way to end the season, ohh boy. However, we should not focus on the refs. The reason why we didn't make the team is the fact that this team was far from ready to play when the season started, This is unaccaptable and 100% on the coaching staff. Sadly we can't change the fact that the refs obvioulsy don't know the rules. There can be done something about the coaching staff.

4. I think I would not like to be Dean Blandino when he goes into his meeting with senior staff, including Roger Goodell, today at the league office in New York. Too many mistakes, easily spotted mistakes, keep happening in the league. How on earth can you be an umpire or side judge staring at the defensive line and see seven players on one side of the center—clearly in violation of a league rule that says six is the most players on the line of scrimmage on either side of the center before a field goal or PAT—and not throw a flag? The league owes the Steelers and the people of Pittsburgh a mea culpa. And I’m beginning to think the offending officials on such obvious plays like that should have to sit a game. It’s just too important a situation for the only consequences during the season to be an offending official not making the playoffs. Coaches bench players if they don’t perform. Blandino should be able to bench officials if they don’t perform.

4. I think I would not like to be Dean Blandino when he goes into his meeting with senior staff, including Roger Goodell, today at the league office in New York. Too many mistakes, easily spotted mistakes, keep happening in the league. How on earth can you be an umpire or side judge staring at the defensive line and see seven players on one side of the center—clearly in violation of a league rule that says six is the most players on the line of scrimmage on either side of the center before a field goal or PAT—and not throw a flag? The league owes the Steelers and the people of Pittsburgh a mea culpa. And I’m beginning to think the offending officials on such obvious plays like that should have to sit a game. It’s just too important a situation for the only consequences during the season to be an offending official not making the playoffs. Coaches bench players if they don’t perform. Blandino should be able to bench officials if they don’t perform.

If there is any sense of justice, he should absolutely return the draft pick. The supposed rationale behind taking the pick was that it may impact the playoff picture. The ineptness of the NFL had an actual impact. While it may be speculative that Succop would have hit the second FG, the forward progress on the punt was not speculative.

The Steelers could have avoided all of this by winning any number of winnable games throughout the year, but two incorrect calls altered the playoff picture.

That game cost me like 10 years of my lifetime. What a way to end the season, ohh boy. However, we should not focus on the refs. The reason why we didn't make the team is the fact that this team was far from ready to play when the season started, This is unaccaptable and 100% on the coaching staff. Sadly we can't change the fact that the refs obvioulsy don't know the rules. There can be done something about the coaching staff.